Max Planck Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany

Excellent scientists and scholars of all nationalities who are expected to continue producing outstanding academic achievements in international collaboration – not least with the assistance of this award – are eligible to be nominated for the Max Planck Research Award.

On an annually-alternating basis, the call for nominations addresses areas within the natural and engineering sciences, the life sciences, and the social sciences and humanities.

The Max Planck Research Award 2014 will be conferred in the area of natural and engineering sciences in the subject “Quantum Nano Science”.

113
years after the foundation of quantum theory by Max Planck, researchers
succeed in controlling materials with ever higher precision to realize
exotic quantum states. Thus nano structured materials and devices arise,
that by exploiting the most bizarre features of quantum mechanics –
take discretisation, superposition, entanglement and many body systems
as examples – are designed for special purposes. Such phenomena form the
focus of the relatively young experimental field of Quantum Nano
Science that has emerged at the interfaces of nano science, quantum
optics, photonics, materials technology and quantum information.

Every
year, the Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society grant two
research awards to one researcher working abroad and one researcher
working in Germany.

The Presidents /
Vice Chancellors of universities and the heads of research institutions
in Germany are eligible to make nominations. Direct applications are
not accepted. As a rule, each award is endowed with 750,000 EUR and may
be used over a period of three to a maximum of five years to fund
research chosen by the award winner.

Requirements

The
nominee must be recognized internationally as an outstandingly
qualified academic (e.g. awards, positive responses to publications,
etc.).

Expectation of continued outstanding academic
achievements in international collaboration – not least with the
assistance of the award.

Nomination by a person entitled to make the nomination.

Expert reviews by important international and German collaborative partners and/or academics.

The
Humboldt Foundation assumes that candidates will abide by the Rules of
Good Scientific Practice during the application and sponsorship periods.

The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2014.
The
deadline is not an exclusion date; however, it may not be possible to
process nominations which arrive late or incomplete. The Selection
Committee meeting will take place in spring/ summer 2013. Reviewing the
applications takes four to six months.

It is the nominator’s
responsibility to ensure that he or she has submitted all the necessary
documents. Nominations not submitted as a single entity will take longer
to process. The documents required in addition to the nomination
documents, i.e. the confidential statements by the expert reviewers, can
be submitted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation directly, at the same time as the nomination.

An
independent Selection Committee composed of academic peers makes the
final decision on the nominations received. The Selection Committee
makes its decision solely on the basis of the nominees’ academic qualifications.

Nominees will be notified about the Selection Committee’s decision immediately after the meeting.